Responses to "Charting the right course in extremely difficult times," by AJC Publisher John Mellott, July 17

A less liberal slant, please

Of all the issues addressed in John Mellott's letter to readers, none mentions substance. Here's an idea that will keep thousands like me from being off-and-on subscribers to the AJC: Be a little more like Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, especially the latter, which regularly prints insightful stories and columns with a conservative or libertarian bent.

With the majority of your stories and columns having a Bookman-Tucker-Luckovich hue, free-market readers such as me remain bemused, frustrated and alienated —- often turning those feelings into canceled subscriptions.

The irony of your current approach is that you drive away those with higher incomes who have no problem paying three or four times as much each year for the WSJ and a few other high-quality newspapers or magazines. If I were to find such free-market stories in the AJC on a regular basis, I would gladly pay three times the subscription price. I say "were" (in the subjunctive) because I think the chances to be virtually nil —- and that the token conservative column somehow assuages the AJC editors' consciences.

DAVID ELMORE

Roswell

Move toward center to keep readers

As a longtime subscriber, and having observed the diminishing relevancy of the AJC over recent years, I read with interest John Mellott's letter to readers and his analysis and justification for change that he describes as "significant" and "transformational."

Mellott may have overlooked a key factor toward retaining advertising dollars and readership. I suggest taking a cue from Barack Obama: move general and editorial reporting more toward the "center" of socioeconomic and political issues and events. Balanced and accurate reporting will go further toward sustaining and growing readership and advertising than any one of several of the cost-cutting measures outlined.

PAULA PYBURN

Woodstock

Elections

Bias-driven vote

Proof positive that Republicans are bent on driving (pun intended) the United States into a third-world nation: MARTA in Gwinnett? Republicans, 63 percent against; Democrats, 70 percent for.

Wake up, folks! It's time for fear-based politics to end. We need to vote our conscience, not our unfounded biases.

BOB BERLON

Buford

We're to blame

I am completely befuddled. We gripe constantly about the hypocrisy, phoniness and blatant crookedness of our elected politicians, regardless of political party, and then when election time rolls around, we read: "[U.S. House:] Incumbents Win All Primary Races," (Metro, July 16). What is wrong with us?

BILL RUTH

Mableton

A frustrating time at the polls

My wife and I spent a frustrating time at the polls Tuesday. We had applied for absentee ballots before June 20. These ballots were never delivered. At our poll we were not given a chance to vote, as there was a record of the absentee ballots. The poll manager called someone, who told her to have us fill out provisional ballots. When these were submitted, we needed to sign affidavits, but they did not have any.

We were told more affidavits would be sent from a nearby polling place and were given chairs to wait. I asked how many voters had our same problem that day and was told more that 20. I asked how many affidavits they had on hand at the beginning of the day and was told three.

When we had been there for more than an hour, I told the poll manager we were leaving because my wife had had surgery the day before. We live nearby and I gave her our telephone number and asked her to call when the affidavits arrived. She said she would, but never did.

We have a constitutional right to vote. This was denied us by incompetence. If it was caused by efforts to rig the election, there would be outrage. Where is the outrage for the sorry state our city has sunk to? From the deficit-creating mayor to the clownish ineptitude on exhibit at the polls, we are in trouble.

JACK NICHOLS

Atlanta

Cleland forgot his constituents

Funny how a couple of years removed from an event can cloud one's memory and allow a rewriting of history. A letter writer denigrates those who voted for Saxby Chambliss instead of Max Cleland as behaving shamefully ("Pols, voters both behave shamefully," @issue, July 15). This letter writer, like countless others, provides as proof a political ad that excoriated Cleland for voting against creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

This ad in no way portrayed Cleland as "a traitor in league with terrorists." If that's what the left read into the ad, that's their problem, not mine.

I knew that Cleland voted against this important legislation because it failed to give union status to airport screeners. Cleland lost his Senate seat because he willingly took marching orders from Sen. Tom Daschle and failed to heed the sage advice of fellow Sen. Zell Miller to not forget he represented Georgia, not Massachusetts.

JOHNEY R. FRIAR

Auburn

Old doesn't equate to valuable

Georgia Tech, one of the top research universities in this country, has clearly been behind the revitalization of Midtown over the last six years or so. Leave it up to the small-minded folks with the city of Atlanta to hinder such a movement ("Historic building saved —- for now," Metro, July 15).

Is there some historic value to the [Crum and Forster] building we do not know about? If so, why is it not already on the list of buildings being protected? Just because something is old does not mean it is historic. Most of the time it just means it needs to be replaced.

The article said there was an online petition to save the building, with some 2,000 names on it. How many who have signed the petition have seen the structure or even know where it is? Put the petition on the front door and see how many signatures get put on it.

BRIAN CARROLL

Smyrna

Children too often caught in cross-fire

The governor says he believes concealed weapons should be allowed at Hartfield-Jackson airport ("Perdue: Guns in airport 'good idea,' " Metro, July 15). First, why would anyone want to carry a concealed weapon at Hartsfield-Jackson other than for nefarious reasons. Weapons are not allowed on airplanes under federal law.

Second, the Constitution says we are allowed to possess firearms. It says nothing, to my knowledge, about bearing concealed firearms.

If the governor were to work at a children's hospital and see what children look like when they are brought to an emergency room after being involved in an accidental shooting, he might do a turn-around about carrying concealed weapons, or weapons at all. Too many arms-bearers manage to leave loaded weapons around, and the result is too many horrific injuries, not to mention deaths, to children.

THELMA HEYWOOD

Duluth

Atlanta should try employee pay cuts

Perhaps Atlanta's city government could do what many business firms and individual families have done in times of financial distress: cut expenses and salaries. Here is a suggestion: If all Atlanta city employees took a 10 percent pay cut for six months, this would greatly reduce the debt and —- equally important —- save the employees' jobs. This includes everybody from the mayor on down. Tough, yes, but better than being unemployed.

DENTON HARRIS

Atlanta

Remember pre-k?

The Georgia Lottery held a press conference with Gov. Perdue early this week to celebrate a milestone of $10 billion transferred to the state over the past 15 years for education. That's certainly good news. But why, despite the lottery's success, cannot our once-vaunted pre-k program not deliver on the promise of offering pre-k to all 4-year-olds who want it. This is a question every Georgian should be asking the state's leadership.

MARC MARTON

Roswell